The Quest for Peace

Amid rising tensions and unrest, representatives of the government
and the ANC--with strong misgivings--met in Cape Town in May 1990 to
begin planning for constitutional negotiations. Even holding "talks
about talks" was risky. The government had to grant immunity from
prosecution to many formerly banned or exiled ANC members before they
could safely appear in public. In a few antiapartheid strongholds,
political moderates were attacked for being too conciliatory.

President de Klerk faced an increasingly divided constituency of his
own. Conservatives intensified their demands for him to step down, while
NP progressives pressured him to move more boldly toward multiracial
government. Planning sessions for eventual negotiations were postponed
repeatedly as Mandela and de Klerk had to reassure their constituencies
of their determination to set aside the past and to work peacefully
toward a broadly legitimate government.

De Klerk's credibility was low among his former opponents. The talks
snarled over his insistence on defending what he termed the "rights
of minorities"--a phrase the ANC viewed simply as a ploy to
preserve white control. De Klerk's standing in the negotiations was
further weakened in late 1990, when the government-appointed Commission
of Inquiry into Certain Alleged Murders (Harms Commission), which he had
established earlier that year, found evidence--but not
"proof"--that clandestine death squads had operated within the
security services. The commission's hearings were often marred by
violence and by claims of witness intimidation.

The international response to change in South Africa was cautious.
Several African countries, visited by Mandela within weeks of his
release from prison, held to their pledge to await his signal of
progress toward ending apartheid before they began to lift sanctions
against South Africa. Several European countries, visited by de Klerk in
May 1990, broke with European Community (EC--see Glossary) sanctions
agreements and immediately lifted their bans on investment and travel to
South Africa. International athletic teams were drawn into the
controversy, as some sports organizations tried to adhere to
international boycotts, while in South Africa, sports enthusiasts and
athletes demanded readmission to world competitions. In late 1990, both
de Klerk and Mandela again went abroad seeking political and financial
support. De Klerk traveled to the United States in September 1990 and to
Britain and the Netherlands in October; at about the same time, Mandela
traveled to India, Japan, and other Asian countries.

Popular pressure for lifting sanctions increased in the United
States. The US Comprehensive Antiapartheid Act of 1986 had specified
that five conditions would have to be met before sanctions could be
lifted. By late 1990, three of them had been accomplished--the
government had entered into multiracial negotiations, had removed bans
on multiracial political organizations, and had lifted the state of
emergency in Natal. The remaining two conditions--freeing political
prisoners and repealing the Group Areas Act and the Population
Registration Act--were not met until 1991.

The climate of uncertainty spread to the homelands during 1990 and
1991. These arid patches of land were despised by many as symbols of the
apartheid system. Several homeland leaders, who depended heavily on
Pretoria for their legitimacy--and their budgets--faced growing dissent
and demands for reincorporation into South Africa. Zulu residents of the
wealthiest and most populous homeland, KwaZulu, increasingly feared that
their interests and culture would be submerged in the groundswell of
support for Mandela and the ANC, and that their past cooperation with
the NP would be forgotten.

ANC and government leaders tried to find common ground for
negotiating a new constitution, but they managed only incremental
progress while they worked to rein in the extremist fringes of their
respective constituencies. In June 1990, de Klerk and Mandela met
officially for the first time to set the agenda for further talks. The
two sides moved cautiously toward each other. In August Mandela
announced the suspension of the ANC's thirty-year armed struggle. The
government continued lifting apartheid restrictions, and in October--at
de Klerk's prompting--the NP opened its ranks to all races. On October
15, 1990, parliament repealed the Reservation of Separate Amenities Act
of 1953, which had sanctioned "petty apartheid" in public
places such as beaches, libraries, and places of entertainment.

The talks were threatened by escalating violence throughout 1990, and
in August Mandela accused the government of doing little to end it. De
Klerk and Mandela continued their political tug-of-war. De Klerk sought
domestic and international approval for the changes already under way,
while Mandela pressed for change at a faster pace. A series of
legislative decisions and political breakthroughs in 1990 moved South
Africa closer to multiracial democracy, but at the end of the year, it
was clear that many obstacles remained.

The ANC gradually accepted the notion of a coalition interim
government, but ANC leaders insisted on determining the rules for
forming that coalition. In early 1991, debates raged over various
formulas for multiracial government, and over the allocation of powers
between regional and national authorities, as political leaders on all
sides realized that it was easier to define an illegitimate government
than to construct a legitimate one. They agreed that an all-party
congress would have responsibility for the most onerous organizational
tasks: it would draw up broad principles on which a new constitution
would rest, would determine the makeup of the constitution-making body,
and would establish an interim government to oversee the transition
itself.

In January 1991, Mandela met for the first time in nearly thirty
years with Zulu leader Buthelezi in an effort to allay Zulu fears of ANC
domination. This historic meeting did little to quell escalating ANC-IFP
violence, however, and the weak police response only fueled ANC
suspicions of covert police support for the IFP. Amid rising unrest, the
government implemented a new security crackdown in the townships, dubbed
"Operation Iron Fist." Mandela faced new demands from his
militant younger generation of followers to abandon the negotiations
entirely.

Finally, in February 1991, de Klerk and Mandela reached a compromise
over efforts to reduce both violence and the smuggling of arms into
South Africa, and to achieve the release of political prisoners. The ANC
was anxious to repatriate its remaining exiles, many of whose skills
were needed in the negotiations, but the logistical problems of
returning refugees from countries that lacked diplomatic ties with South
Africa seemed insurmountable until the United Nations High Commissioner
for Refugees (UNHCR) was persuaded to intervene on behalf of the ANC.

On June 5, 1991, the government repealed two more legislative pillars
of apartheid, the Land Act of 1913 (and 1936) and the Group Areas Act of
1950. The 1991 legislation gave all races equal rights to own property
anywhere in the country, enabled some 300,000 black householders to
convert ninety-nine-year leases to full ownership, enabled suburban
residents of all races to set (racially nondiscriminatory) residency
standards for their neighborhoods, authorized the establishment of new
townships and the extension of services to their residents, and
encouraged the development of farmland and rural communities. This
legislation did not authorize compensation for blacks who had been
displaced from their land in the preceding thirty years; instead, it
left their complaints to be dealt with by a special court or commission
to be established for that purpose.

On June 17, 1991, the government repealed the Population Registration
Act of 1950, the most infamous pillar of apartheid, which had authorized
the registration by race of newborn babies and immigrants. Its repeal
was hailed as historic throughout the world, although critics pointed to
related laws still on the books that permitted inequitable treatment in
voting, in pensions, in social services, and in many other areas of
public behavior.

The National Peace Accord of September 1991 was a critical step
toward formal negotiations. The thirty-three-page accord, signed by
representatives of twenty-seven political organizations and national and
homeland governments, set codes of conduct for all parties to the
process, including the police. The accord also established a network of
"peace committees," to contain the violence that continued to
plague the townships. Ironically, the most important results of the
National Peace Accord turned out to be the establishment of networks of
committed individuals, the opening of communications channels, and the
trust that began to be sown through discussion. The accord itself failed
to accomplish its immediate goal; the violence continued and increased
sporadically throughout 1992.